1 00:00:53,44 --> 00:00:57,96 The travel room crosses Bolivia's high plateau toward its cheap city the pride 2 00:00:57,96 --> 00:01:03,33 comes upon its suddenly picturesque bright colored city in miniature 3 00:01:08,34 --> 00:01:12,27 here a quarter of a million people live in a modern community two 4 00:01:12,27 --> 00:01:18,15 and a half miles above sea level rises the highest big city in the world higher 5 00:01:18,15 --> 00:01:24,84 even than life in Tibet been called a are the people of the prize are well adjusted 6 00:01:25,87 --> 00:01:30,36 other living so high. Does make a difference even in people who were born to it. 7 00:01:31,43 --> 00:01:34,17 The path they knew always as residents of a prize call themselves. 8 00:01:34,67 --> 00:01:39,13 I likely to alternate between periods of nervousness and apathy 9 00:01:40,98 --> 00:01:45,06 and the foreigners who come from such sealevel point this Lima or New York 10 00:01:45,06 --> 00:01:47,14 or Buenos Aires find 11 00:01:47,14 --> 00:01:51,66 that the scarcity of oxygen converts climbing a flight of stairs into a major 12 00:01:51,66 --> 00:01:57,13 physical effort walking up one of the steep streets becomes a Herculean task. 13 00:01:59,23 --> 00:02:03,80 No matter where one. Wants to go in the pile it always seems to be uphill going 14 00:02:03,80 --> 00:02:10,00 and uphill coming back. Many strange phenomena in life at this altitude. 15 00:02:11,13 --> 00:02:13,92 There's so little rock that in the fires are difficult to start. 16 00:02:13,95 --> 00:02:19,48 So no one carried fire insurance automobile loses forty percent of its power 17 00:02:20,48 --> 00:02:22,83 and it takes six minutes to boil a three minute day 18 00:02:29,26 --> 00:02:33,27 the heart of all of ours is in the plaza where it is said 19 00:02:33,27 --> 00:02:37,80 that the first cry of rebellion against Spanish rule arose in eighty nine 20 00:02:39,43 --> 00:02:43,25 and the great square is the handsome cathedral one of the largest in the world 21 00:02:43,96 --> 00:02:49,45 where twelve thousand people may worship together around this plaza are the 22 00:02:49,45 --> 00:02:53,23 principal government buildings or in the cars are the Executive 23 00:02:53,23 --> 00:02:57,11 and Legislative branches of the government the Supreme Court. 24 00:02:57,15 --> 00:03:03,94 However meets in through the Indians of this region 25 00:03:03,94 --> 00:03:05,96 on the high plateau above the city. 26 00:03:06,48 --> 00:03:11,55 And the luxuriant youngest valleys beyond the mountains to the east a notoriously 27 00:03:11,55 --> 00:03:14,21 bad city dwellers. 28 00:03:14,23 --> 00:03:19,83 They do however come in to market on weekends in the city is alive with these 29 00:03:19,83 --> 00:03:22,49 strange and quiet people. 30 00:03:23,20 --> 00:03:29,64 They are for the most part the ancient I'm a writer try longer for the Incas they 31 00:03:29,64 --> 00:03:32,26 were a powerful race. 32 00:03:33,02 --> 00:03:38,07 They make their headquarters in the old in courtyards become warehouses for their 33 00:03:38,07 --> 00:03:38,43 goods 34 00:03:46,48 --> 00:03:50,17 in the market they need to fight hard and high smelling to county. 35 00:03:51,20 --> 00:03:53,78 This may be a stew with me potatoes and corn 36 00:03:54,89 --> 00:03:58,76 or roast meat served alone flavored with pepper and God. 37 00:04:03,98 --> 00:04:09,49 Here they bargain for little piles of pale green leaf Caracappa from which the drug 38 00:04:09,49 --> 00:04:13,51 cocaine is derived to these people who chew it like tobacco. 39 00:04:13,88 --> 00:04:18,81 It is an opiate to help them to endure the bitter cold and the hard labor. 40 00:04:20,80 --> 00:04:23,77 But the a bit you will use of coca down to the intellect. 41 00:04:23,94 --> 00:04:28,23 So that enlightened Bolivians are now trying to stamp out the practice. 42 00:04:32,21 --> 00:04:37,91 Even more characteristic of the proud the in than the Indians the cholos people of 43 00:04:37,91 --> 00:04:40,42 mixed banish and Indian blood. 44 00:04:40,43 --> 00:04:44,44 They comprise about twenty five percent of Bolivia's population 45 00:04:45,48 --> 00:04:46,76 that the colorful 46 00:04:46,76 --> 00:04:51,79 and intelligent they grow daily more important in Bolivian national right. 47 00:04:55,60 --> 00:04:58,68 Sometimes parading on a same day in a cloud of confetti 48 00:04:58,68 --> 00:05:03,80 and more often gliding along under loads that would stagger Ice-T. 49 00:05:03,80 --> 00:05:05,30 North American at this altitude. 50 00:05:05,89 --> 00:05:12,70 They are on the present as the cobblestones of the streets their great festival of 51 00:05:12,70 --> 00:05:18,83 the year is our theater modernized remnant of an ancient Indian culture here the 52 00:05:18,83 --> 00:05:19,37 Charles 53 00:05:19,37 --> 00:05:24,24 and Indians come from many parts of Bolivia bringing their own handicrafts to sell 54 00:05:26,37 --> 00:05:32,85 the Rio tie the festival is the cake a tiny plaster manicured a good fairy of 55 00:05:32,85 --> 00:05:36,47 prosperity an ancient legend the people believe 56 00:05:36,47 --> 00:05:41,10 that if they purchased after they are many a cheery productions of things they want 57 00:05:41,10 --> 00:05:41,78 during the year 58 00:05:41,78 --> 00:05:46,57 and if they hang them around the air Keiko their wishes will be granted 59 00:05:53,14 --> 00:05:59,84 tiny bags of rice and Coke or new shoes wedding ring toy horses trucks and God. 60 00:06:00,00 --> 00:06:03,32 New apartment houses around Keiko 61 00:06:06,92 --> 00:06:13,47 and all his fine way in the household of his project until he makes all the dreams 62 00:06:13,47 --> 00:06:14,05 come true 63 00:06:15,04 --> 00:06:25,56 or at least until our return next year brings 64 00:06:25,57 --> 00:06:30,86 out the child in her full glory. They never costume in person. 65 00:06:30,91 --> 00:06:33,45 She may spend a month then come on a pair of earrings. 66 00:06:33,86 --> 00:06:40,50 She is still a practical business woman a hard headed shopkeeper extravagantly 67 00:06:40,51 --> 00:06:44,98 loving mother cholo without a baby on her back is hardly a complete 68 00:06:53,41 --> 00:06:56,69 quixotic sharp tongue which is unique. 69 00:07:13,96 --> 00:07:17,09 During the three days of our crops of dancers 70 00:07:17,09 --> 00:07:23,77 and musicians down the narrow cobbled way into the patio to play their strange too 71 00:07:23,77 --> 00:07:25,48 and to perform their gay 72 00:07:25,48 --> 00:07:31,94 that doesn't have the inevitable Derby Saturday 73 00:07:31,94 --> 00:07:37,53 or Johnny angle the choice is again provocative big unlike any other in the world. 74 00:08:56,23 --> 00:08:58,76 But all of the prizes not market shares 75 00:08:58,76 --> 00:09:03,42 and dancing for the city of pieces for all of colonial tradition 76 00:09:04,61 --> 00:09:08,03 and it in thirteen forty eight by a lieutenant of Pedro delegates can. 77 00:09:08,23 --> 00:09:13,24 It is laden with the architectural glories which graced the early capital. 78 00:09:15,23 --> 00:09:19,60 Spanish don't work by Indian artisans tends to perpetuate Indian forms 79 00:09:19,60 --> 00:09:24,97 and the heads of ancient gods strangely on these Christian columns 80 00:09:38,34 --> 00:09:43,59 even here the Chola reappears this time in another guide as a nurse to a newly 81 00:09:43,59 --> 00:09:44,70 Christian child. 82 00:09:45,35 --> 00:09:47,90 The child and her sister many La Paz families 83 00:09:47,90 --> 00:09:51,93 but the negro mammy was in the Southern homes of the United States 84 00:09:52,80 --> 00:09:57,92 and many a child of Spanish speaking parents grows up speaking fluent Iraq. 85 00:10:02,16 --> 00:10:07,43 Also belonging to antiquity is the strangely beautiful cemetery where the dead are 86 00:10:07,43 --> 00:10:17,20 placed into high above the ground. 87 00:10:19,02 --> 00:10:23,09 In another part of the city is a national stadium seating sixty thousand people 88 00:10:41,05 --> 00:10:45,11 all of the INS in common with virtually all other South American I LOVE years of 89 00:10:45,11 --> 00:10:47,50 soccer which they play far harder 90 00:10:47,50 --> 00:11:00,42 and better than would seem possible at this altitude. 91 00:11:00,44 --> 00:11:04,11 Imagine yourself doing this for example on top of Pikes Peak 92 00:11:39,99 --> 00:11:42,17 smart La Paz love the movie. 93 00:11:42,19 --> 00:11:47,21 This is one city in which Argentina Mexican made films are almost as frequent as 94 00:11:47,21 --> 00:11:53,11 those from North America most fashionable is the vermouth for six o'clock show on 95 00:11:53,11 --> 00:11:56,32 Sunday. This is one hour in the week 96 00:11:56,32 --> 00:11:59,94 when you can be fairly sure of being a part out in its best beer. 97 00:12:00,00 --> 00:12:06,18 Been talk that there is still another prize not picture at. 98 00:12:06,72 --> 00:12:11,54 But important for the city's future Bolivians have great ambitions for the 99 00:12:11,54 --> 00:12:13,89 industrialization of their country. 100 00:12:13,91 --> 00:12:17,22 And factories like this are becoming focal point. 101 00:12:17,41 --> 00:12:29,69 In economic expansion. 102 00:12:29,71 --> 00:12:33,20 They have an almost childlike love of intricate machinery. 103 00:12:33,50 --> 00:12:37,88 And they also have sufficient good and inexpensive manpower to run it. 104 00:12:42,57 --> 00:12:45,22 But there are obstacles to industrial expansion here. 105 00:12:46,12 --> 00:12:51,38 There is little fuel for plant operation most serious of all every piece of 106 00:12:51,38 --> 00:12:55,83 machinery in this world factory had to make the long the trip from Europe 107 00:12:55,83 --> 00:12:56,72 or North America 108 00:12:56,72 --> 00:13:32,11 and the expensive rail trip up from the Pacific coast in 109 00:13:32,11 --> 00:13:34,87 spite of these obstacles industrialization 110 00:13:34,88 --> 00:13:40,69 and construction are going ahead in this new realistic Lapides this fantasy pinch 111 00:13:40,69 --> 00:13:44,26 project of tearing down a hill as a purely practical 112 00:13:44,26 --> 00:13:50,14 and you are constructing a highway to link to apprise with its eastern suburb of 113 00:13:50,14 --> 00:13:57,18 Mira Florida in these projects shows are the chief workman. 114 00:13:57,20 --> 00:13:59,84 Indians will occasionally join them for a few days. 115 00:14:00,83 --> 00:14:02,40 They are farmers at heart 116 00:14:02,40 --> 00:14:40,54 and prefer to work the soil. 117 00:14:40,56 --> 00:14:46,14 In mirror for a construction is in progress on a new workers housing project to 118 00:14:46,14 --> 00:14:51,48 replace the ancient adobe hut which it is the wish of every citizen to destroy 119 00:15:00,50 --> 00:15:03,28 it all over the city. The Adobes are coming down 120 00:15:04,20 --> 00:15:07,31 and new starkly modern buildings of reinforced concrete 121 00:15:07,31 --> 00:15:13,67 and brick are going up still a lot of this changing more rapidly than 122 00:15:13,67 --> 00:15:16,03 that of any other American capital today 123 00:15:23,16 --> 00:15:28,44 this reconstruction is a hard job. There is no easy access to building materials. 124 00:15:28,48 --> 00:15:33,82 There is little word and all iron and steel must be imported. 125 00:15:33,84 --> 00:15:38,24 This adds to the cost and increases the difficulties of construction. 126 00:15:38,25 --> 00:15:44,84 But still a build a levy a look to a 127 00:15:44,84 --> 00:15:45,26 time 128 00:15:45,26 --> 00:15:51,00 when a greater part of our national territory will become economically affected producing 129 00:15:51,00 --> 00:15:56,13 not only T.-N. and Other Or which is already famous but food clothing 130 00:15:56,13 --> 00:15:59,27 and building materials sufficient for her own needs. 131 00:16:04,52 --> 00:16:08,96 Powers the center of modern Bolivia is already the highest big city in the world. 132 00:16:09,61 --> 00:16:14,31 It is growing in the face of tremendous odds as though there were some special 133 00:16:14,31 --> 00:16:19,60 virtue in this fight as though it literally increased the stature of the city a 134 00:16:19,61 --> 00:16:21,44 process that it's hard on the idea 135 00:16:22,38 --> 00:16:26,85 and it's back to the job of living at least half a dozen stories high.